Category: Memories

Nursery rhymes remembered

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I had a little nut tree

Nothing would it bear

But a silver nutmeg

And a golden pear

The king of Spains daughter

Came to visit me

And all for the sake

Of my little nut tree.

Funny how your mind looks for something interesting when it’s got nothing to do. I used to know a lot of nursery rhymes when I was a little child. This one I would say is well known? But who knows this one that I used to sing when I was on a seesaw.

Seesaw, Marjorie Daw

Jenny shall have a new master,

She shall have but a penny a day

Because she can’t work any faster!

I want to try and remember more. A couple in Manchester or Salford? Collected a lot of rhymes and children’s songs in the early 1900s. I think their surname was Opie. I’m sure there’s more information about it on line. They found that a rhyme sung in the south of England could travel to the North of Scotland in about two weeks by word of mouth (pre telephone).

Tree across the road

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The tree across the road a few years ago. Covered in ivy. This was drawn for an old #bandofsketchers prompt. The prompt was ivy.

I haven’t been doing these challenges for a few months. I think I ought to try again. It seems a shame that I stopped but life has been getting me down. Art is a great cure for sadness I think. I’ll try again soon.

My grandads ship

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My grandfather carved this ship from wood, probably in the early 20th century. It had no masts so I put the the bamboo sticks into it when I was young and I was going to try and put sails on it. It has thin strips of cardboard nailed on along the sides. I painted it up because it was so shabby.

This was a watercolour sketch I’d done about 4 years ago and I’m mourning the fact that I could still draw and paint neatly.

A striped tee shirt

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Describe an item you were incredibly attached to as a youth. What became of it?

I miss that tee shirt

It was orange and white

I felt like a pirate

Fun to play in.

I was only a child

Wore it forever

But it wore through

Holes in the cotton

But wouldn’t let it go!

Eventually grew out of it

My mom used it to dust!

Longshore drift…

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Someone asked a question on Facebook about posts sticking up through a beach in lines.

I have a relative at the coast and had wondered the same thing myself. I asked and found out that they were used to slow something called longshore drift. It’s where over time tides moving along the coast shift sands sideways. Groynes (boards) between the posts held the sand back and stopped the beach being washed away.

The Leopard

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My friend sent me this photo (I don’t have an attribution for it). This was a few year’s ago when it was open and the Leopard Hotel was running ghost tours and serving lovely food.

Then one of the owners died and it was taken over by a family member. I don’t know what happened but I think Covid didn’t help. In the end it closed and the owner moved elsewhere. Although the frontage looked OK it needed a tremendous amount of money spending on it as it was partly derelict in the back upper floors.

The hotel stood empty for months, it was bought by an entrepreneur who may have been going to turn it into flats. Unfortunately someone got in and apparently set up a cannabis farm in it (what I heard). Then it simply burnt down. Some of the frontage may remain but the place is boarded up.

I was involved for a while because I painted the murals in the back room, the Arnold Bennett Suite. I never got decent photos in there. I do hope it can be restored.

A hundred?

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What are your thoughts on the concept of living a very long life?

Not me!

Old, not a word I dread, as long as my mind and body continue to work. I want to keep going. I don’t think there is anything after life, I seriously doubt it, so I want to be me for as long as I can.

Health is the problem. Co-morbidities are flung at me at a rapid rate. One thing or another to take tablets for, carefully balanced to keep me going. Unless the pharmacy can’t get my pills, they are out of stock, suppliers let them down. Almost every month there is a problem where I’m left owed something.

After all that I would like to leave a legacy of my art. I hope my paintings won’t get thrown out, maybe I can keep going for seberal more years. I will try.

Moving about

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What are your biggest challenges?

My biggest challenge seems to be movement inside and outside the house.

Inside I’m unsteady, I use my stick because my feet get muddled sometimes. They twist round each other and trip me up. Going up and down stairs is fun, especially when the cats decide to sleep on the stairs it’s a good job they have white patches so I can see them in the dark.

Outside is a challenge too. Just getting down the steps, hanging on to handrails, then walk a few steps to get to the car. But I get nervous driving, in the past I had hubby with me. Now? I get lifts with people if I can if I’m going any distance. I imagine myself stuck with a flat tyre, or out of petrol, or lost, or too tired to carry on. What happens if the person I’m going to see is out? I think I drove less that 500 miles last year. Memory is of driving all over the country, no longer. My challenge is to get better? I wish.

It’s 11.30pm

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Had a quiet day. Upset stomach (you don’t need to know). Slept most of it, kept warm. Left the milk outside too shaky to get it.

Interesting dreams, and nightmares. Cats kept me company. Paws for thought. Like miniature lions on plinths, standing guard while I snoozed.

Memory of watching rain then snow fall, then rain again. Had a bit of breakfast at 2pm, but nothing else but black decaff coffee. Stomach cramps stopped more.

Listened to radio at 5pm. Unbelievable words from across the pond. Not President yet talks about invading Greenland, Canada as 51st state, going into Panama. Am I delusional? Later a spokesman said he was joking. Piecing it together he also spoke about windmills killing whales, dripping taps, expelling millions. I’m not the deluded one.

Normal posting will resume tomorrow hopefully.